考验？！

又到了让我“坐立不安”，“狂捉头发”的时候了！

下个月初，又要“出版”AXP e-Newsletter啦！身为“主编”的我，压力之大，应该没几个人会知道的，我总会装出一副“酷酷”的样子，似乎在说“一切搞定”，哈哈！

也许有人会说，唉呀，反正都是免费的，干嘛那么麻烦？！正因为是免费的才紧张，不知道到底有多少人阅读？不知道到底内容是否碰到目标市场的“G spot”？

虽然能够知道点击率，可是应该不是很准的啰！点击不表示下载，下载不表示阅读！

编辑成员有好几个，要怎么将不同的意见融合，真的是不简单的啰。。。太容易接受，也许之后会出现问题，太过坚持己见，也许以后就不能得到别人的意见了。。。！由于，这是我们重要的策略之一，所以。。。唉！一言难尽啊！

不知道老天是不是要考验我，每次正当工作量是平时的倍数时，都会有一些“突发事件”接踵而来，让我应付得措手不及。。。

然而，我想，就因为有个“观功念恩”在我心里，至少不会像以前一样“大发雷霆”吧？！只有我身边的人能够看到我是否有改变吧？！

另外，适时的打球也能够让我的压力稍减，可能是短暂的，好过没有啰！我想，老天也待我不薄了，前几次去打球，都很恰巧的在我打完球，冲凉，或回办公室的途中下起倾盆大雨了！

哈，人生的挑战是不会停止的。然而，重要的是，我们以什么样的心态去面对它们，接受它们，解决它们！

Trainer for PERS

On 6 & 7 October 2009, I was invited by AAG to conduct a two days’ seminar on Private Entity Reporting Standards for the accounting staff from Perbadanan Islam Johor Group. Although this is my expertise and it’s not my first attempt to conduct seminar, speaking in front of a group of 30 people is a new experience and challenge for me.

What’s more? The gap of the participants’ academic qualification and experience is wide, from SPM to Degree holders, from accounts assistants to accountants. This is another challenge for me to prepare the training materials that can suit all the participants’ knowledge. In any seminar in the market, this kind of composition is rare!

However, they are very serious in improving the current accounting practices, I have to try my very best to achieve their course objectives.


Day One …

The seminar is planned to be officiated by the Deputy General Manager of PIJ Group at 9 am. The traffic heading to Senai is very busy in the morning, luckily I set off quit early and reached Mercure Johor Palm Resort & Golf at about 8.30 am.

The official opening of the seminar was delayed as the DGM was late, and it’s my show time… I have to thank Jeanie (Alice’s sister) for helping me to draft the opening speech in Bahasa Malaysia. In fact, quit “tough” for me to speak in BM as I didn’t speak “proper” BM for a very long time. After presenting for about 10 minutes, DGM arrived and we had the official opening.



They are very serious on this seminar, and everything is so formal. Speeches by DGM of PIJ Group, Partner of AAG, etc… They even prepared a banner solely for this seminar, a “wow” for me! After the opening ceremony, we had the tea break. A special “VIP” table is prepared. Another “wow”, this is also rare for the past seminars that I have attended.

Erm, during the break, I can hardly participate in their conversation, as they mainly spoke in BM. Haha, what a “shame” to be a Malaysian but don’t know how to speak BM?! I am trying to learn with my daughters… Indeed, simple conversation is fine for me, such as dealing with government departments. However, to express accounting technical terms in BM, that is crazy for me…

My show time continued after we had our short tea break. As we are aware, in order for us to learn effectively, it’s important to have two-ways communication. Thus, I have prepared gifts for those who answered my questions correctly, and a mystery gift for the participant who asked most questions during the seminar. Haha, I am trying to be more creative.

During lunch, a special “VIP” table is also prepared for us. The good thing is that we don’t have to queue up to take foods, hotel staff served the foods. Bad thing is that almost all the foods served are meats…!! Anyway, I just wish to fill up my stomach!

After lunch, I seemed to lose control over the time allocated to each topic as I tried to give more examples to ensure that they understand the concepts, and the key accounting personnel are also quit keen to ask questions. Our seminar for day 1 supposed to be ended at 5 pm, but we extended for another ½ hour.


Initially, I planned to tee off at Palm Resort for 9 holes after the seminar. Too bad, it’s too late and I cancelled my plan.

While I was walking toward my hotel room, I discovered that the swimming pool is just in front of my room. That’s not a bad idea as I like swimming too, I then switched my plan to swim for almost 40 minutes. A very nice exercise after a day of talking and stress!

When I wish to return to my room, something silly happen, I took out the wrong card. I took the car access card instead of room card! No choice loh, I used the towel to cover myself and barefoot walked to reception to get another access card! Haha, feel so embarrass!

When I returned to the room, felt a bit hungry, and I noted that there is a food basket on the table. When I opened it, wow, there are few pieces of biscuits and a “golf ball”. I was curious what is that “golf ball”, I squeezed it and it’s broken… haha, it’s actually white chocolate!

Dinner was scheduled to start at 7.45 pm, but GM of PIJ Group arrived at about 8.20 pm. BBQ dinner was “formally” started after the speech given by GM. Again, most of the dishes are meats, oops! And I sited beside GM… Though it’s a buffet dinner, foods are served for “VIP”. Indeed, it’s not fun lah!

After taking vegetarian foods for more than 6 months, I realise that I can’t take too much meats, my stomach easily full with just taking a little meats. Good sign?! Perhaps!

Dinner ended at about 10 pm, and I went back to hotel room to take rest while read through next day’s topics to get more familiar with it.


Day Two …

Early in the morning, when I opened door to balcony, awesome!! The golf course is just within 100 meters! What a nice scenery, too bad my stay is so “short” here and “no time” for golf!

Second day’s seminar is scheduled to be commenced at 8.30 am, and I went for breakfast at about 8 am. Luckily, no VIP seats for breakfast!! I can choose what I like to eat, like, salads, fruits, porridge, etc… Light and healthier food!

When I reached the seminar room, the assistant accountant of PIJ came to talk to me, and commented that the materials I covered were too “technical” and lower level staff had difficulties to understand! Also, I spoke in English, they also have problem in absorbing what I spoke!

Oops, that’s the worries I had!! Though I have tried my very best to put in more practical examples, and use more accounting entries to elaborate the concept, they still have problems!

Anyway, I tried again to slow down! Hopefully, they can at least benefit from second day’s seminar.

My part ended at about 3 pm and the next two hours belong to AAG for communicating audit issues. Before I ended my session, I announced that the mystery gifts went to En. Khai, the internal auditors of PIJ Group, he has asked 30 questions! Wow! He received RM50 MPH cash voucher, “courtesy” of Ivan, haha!

En. Khai (Left) - won the mystery gift for asking most questions

PIJ also presented a souvenir to me, represented by the Finance Manager, Cik Fara. Haha, a surprise for me oh!



At the end of the seminar, we had a group photo!! Nice?!

From seats, from left: En. Anis, En. Ibrahim, En. Azman (they are from PIJ Group), me, Mr. Venka (AAG Partner), Mr. Sam (AAG Principal), Cik. Shima (AAG Partner in Kedah), Mr. Willham (my uni-mate cum AAG Senior Mgr)

Though there may be some misunderstanding on the “objectives” of the seminar, generally, the participants are nice and it’s a great experience for me!

中秋节的家庭聚会

缘起。。。

我们的月亮 一定圆
一家人 今天来团圆
我们的月亮 一定圆
手牵手 我们心相连

。。。
。。。
。。。

这是MyFM的DJ合唱的一首庆祝中秋节的歌曲。长久以来，中秋节是另一个让一家人团圆的好日子。

记得在为老妈办后事的时候，最后一晚恰好和二哥一起守夜，谈了很多。说真的，三十多年了，还没有过这样的经验，我是指和二哥的谈话。当然，我们都不希望只有在这种情形才能够让大家在一起，那么近距离的沟通。

我们都有共同的看法，家人之间似乎少了那股凝聚力。也许我们分得太散了，一年，或几年才见一次面。平时各忙各的，也甚少联络。二哥便提议一年来个一，两次的相聚，除了农历新年，好让大家能够真正的聚在一起。

两个月前，突然间看到中秋节刚好落在周末，心里觉得是个“良辰吉日”，让大家团员的好日子。便SMS给哥哥姐姐们，大家的反应都非常的热烈，大家都不二话的答应啦！

筹备

四姐就建议要不要成立个筹委会，哇！对啰！要办，就办的好一点。原本只是想大家聚一聚，吃吃饭，就好的。

既然要大家真正的团聚，就打算叫自助餐吧！要不然准备食物就有得忙了。四姐对居銮的素食店较熟悉，就负责膳食。三姐负责布置，阿俊负责灯谜，Dear较厉害说话，就主持节目吧！哈，本人就统筹策划联络，“杂八让”，嘻嘻！

虽说我们早在一个多月前就成立了“筹委会”及有了初步的节目大纲，但是，还是有点last minute的啰。尤其是我，当天早上还在做最后的准备呢！哈哈！不过，还好，整个流程算是蛮顺利的啦！

我们的大日子

欢迎出席二零零九年中秋节文娱月光会 ...

星期六中午，嫣补完习后，我们例常的驱车返回居銮。原本下午三点还要去上课，但是，老师脚伤进医院了。便在下午乘机小睡了一会。

大约五点多，雨还是下不停，然而，却浇熄不了我们赤热的心，我们便开始布置场地了。

阿俊及阿弟正在准备灯谜

六点多，大家陆陆续续的来到。自助餐及猜灯谜节目准时的在七点开始。不过，二哥一家在从吉隆坡回来的路上遇到了堵车，稍微迟了一些才回到。

我们的素食自助晚餐

大家在“忙碌”的猜灯谜，吃晚餐，看MV

老爸耐心的等待，一边欣赏MV

三姐：“阿米，阿米，告诉你答案要不要？”二姐：“你真的会吗？”

吃饭的同时，我也选了好几首关于月亮的MV来放映。才没那么闷嘛！

填饱了肚子，便看看我的功力如何 - 猜灯谜。哇！蛮难的喔！24题只会不到十题。由于本人是奖品赞助人，我就不参加啦！借口？哈哈！

你们猜你们的灯谜，我吃我的蜜瓜西米露。Yummy，Yummy！！

八点，我们的节目正式开始。第一个，是老爸的生活写照，由阿妹的朋友拍的。那是他们的project。也同时播放了后起之秀的画画作品，用Movie Maker制作的。还有阿妹的flash。

大家聚精会神地在看老爸的生活写照的“movie”

接下来，有四姐和阿杨的二胡及吉他表演 – 来生缘，阿杨的吉他独奏，四姐的二胡独奏（将军令，我们所熟悉的黄飞鸿），小女的keyboard表演。

然后，就是游戏时间啦。。。！第一个游戏：“请你跟我这样做~猜领袖”，连老爸都和我们一起玩哦！


之后，第二个游戏：“猜声音，考听力”。最经典的莫过于二哥的“恶狗叫”，三哥的“猫叫”，小韵的“友教的祈祷声”。。。


就如后来二哥说的，大家都放下平时的尊严，尽情的参与，尽情的笑到肚子爆。。。第一段的游戏到九点结束。

第二时段开始，我们便在“毫无通知”的情形下叫二哥说说心里的感受。三分钟半的说话，非常有意义的话，我想，大家的心都被牵引在一起了（录影已经上载到我的Facebook）。

过后，小女表演了两首佛曲：谢谢好慈心（一首关于有机农业的歌）及梦莲花。

然后，阿杨的吉他独奏-Right Here Waiting，四姐的吉他独奏-一盏灯。

游戏时间又开始了，这回我们玩“你当，我当”。表演节目丰富，竟显大家的才华。

有阿俊刚强的双节棍，还有李小龙的招牌声音

楷楷可爱及搞笑的肚皮舞，笑到我们反

四姐的搞怪动作，快速的同时眨眼睛及吐舌头

阿崇的走猫步，有点害羞


阿杨及妃的走猫步


阿杨的一字马，原被要“害”妃的，结果抽到“我当”，哈哈

阿正的即席画doremon，手笔快又准

阿正和阿妹的蜘蛛侠表演，二哥和阿杨的伏地挺身，等等。。。

哈，太多了！太精彩了！我想大家都会忘不了这一夜吧？！

接着，便是颁奖时间啦！四位灯谜得奖者是：三姐，四姐，小韵，于宣，各获得RM50的购物礼券。节目到尾声，我们以一首“感恩的心”来感恩我们这次难得的相聚。更希望，更多的家人能够参与我们下一次的聚会，尤其是远在香港的大姐，外甥们，砂拉越的大哥，等等。

散会之前，我们就来个大合照，一张认真的。。。


一张有点滑稽的，“假假”看月亮的，哈哈，妃还在那里找月亮呢！


我的感言

如同二哥所说的，在此要感谢“台前幕后”的工作人员，也要感谢所有抽空出席的家人，更要感谢大家的参与。如果少了大家的参与，不管节目有多精彩，都是假的。

有发觉吗？老爸一整晚都好开心，甚至到了第二天。。。

老妈离开我们已经快六个月了，虽然偶尔会想念他，尤其是到佳节的时候，就如王维的作品：“独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲”。

缅怀故人，固然是我们传统的美德。然而，就如二哥之前所说的，我们要活在当下。

不要让悲伤占据了我们的心，应该把精力放在做出对社会有贡献的事。那不是报答故人最好的方法吗？老妈的精神永远与我们同在。加油吧！